Happy New Year from the Rubenstein School! The fall semester was one of the busiest and most exciting in recent years for the Rubenstein School. We started the semester by celebrating the arrival of our new research vessel, the Marcelle Melosira. The celebration continued as we commemorated the remarkable 50-year history of the Rubenstein School. And finally, we closed out the semester with another incredible milestone – reaching net zero energy for the Aiken Center. 

The fall and winter have also been difficult for our community – we’ve experienced multiple losses of valued and remarkable people in the School – student Jack Cavagnolo and long-time colleague Jarlath O'Neil Dunne.  It is important that we show up for each other with kindness and grace as we mourn these losses and grapple with large-scale global crises. I am immensely grateful for this community and the support we provide for each other. 

I am excited to welcome two new faculty, Dr. Salim Uddin and Dr. Kim Coleman, to the Rubenstein School this semester and look forward to the arrival of our incoming Dean, Dr. Peter Newman, in a few months!

I am so proud of the work that we are accomplishing together. Read on for more stories about this incredible learning community!  

Sincerely, 

Allan Strong, Interim Dean and Professor 

Upward of 900 people gathered in the Ira Allen Chapel on Saturday, Jan. 20, to mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Jarlath O’Neil-Dunne, a beloved and longtime member of the University of Vermont community. The service was filled with remarks from people who represented the many facets of Jarlath’s life. Speakers included members of his family, UVM President Suresh Garimella, members of the military community, close friends, fellow exercise enthusiasts, and the UVM Spatial Analysis Lab team. 

UVM Provost and Senior Vice President Patricia Prelock announced the exciting news of Dr. Peter Newman's appointment to lead the Rubenstein School, beginning in summer 2024. Dr. Newman is an accomplished scholar and an alumnus of the Rubenstein School. He earned a Ph.D. in Natural Resources from the University of Vermont, an M.S. in Forest Resource Management from the College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York Syracuse, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Rochester. 

Mar Wiltz ’25 is a Forestry major in the Rubenstein School. Mar's path to finding the right program began with experiential learning before she even arrived at UVM. Over the past three summers, she has interned with an ecological restoration firm in her home state of Indiana. Inspired by experiences in the field, Mar decided to base her capstone project in a 6-credit Independent Study class on the importance of invasive species mitigation.

Rosaura (Rosie) Chapina, a Ph.D. student in the Rubenstein School and a Gund Institute for Environment Graduate Fellow, has been nominated as a Lake Champlain Sea Grant 2024 Knauss Fellow. Chapina’s one-year fellowship with the NOAA Ocean Exploration and Expedition office in Washington D.C. begins in February 2024.

After a summer of extreme weather, UVM experts shared their insights on how climate change and El Niño are expected to impact snow on Vermont’s iconic ski hills and across the U.S. Northeast this winter. Rubenstein School Professor Gillian Galford explains that instead of a stable snowpack from November to March, the new normal is freeze-thaw-freeze-thaw, which is causing issues not only for winter sports—but also in other sectors, like agriculture and winter nutrient runoff.

On November 15, UVM released its first-ever Comprehensive Inclusive Excellence Action Plan, a data-driven strategic plan centered on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. The plan was developed as an overarching strategy supported by 25 individual unit plans steered by University Diversity Council members. Soham Mehta '24 was part of the action plan committee for the Rubenstein School, he presented to the UVM Board of Trustees in the fall to share his experience during the plan-building process.